Investing in Faith: Religion May Help Retirees Stay Mentally Fit

Retirement planning is not all about the money.

It may be just as important for aging Baby Boomers to have invested in their spiritual lives as in their 401K plans, new research shows.

The benefits of increased spiritual activity range from battling loneliness through personal faith and church, synagogue and mosque attendance to reducing death anxiety through religious music, the studies indicate.

And just as financial planners urge their clients to be prepared for living into their 90s, religious leaders can also make a case that a strong spiritual life provides a powerful foundation for coping with the trials of outliving our ability to care for ourselves.

Faith serves for many older people as a tool to manage uncertainty and adversity, and as a source of comfort in difficult situations, according to researcher Lydia Manning of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

"I think it's incredibly important to take into account religion and spirituality" in older populations, she said.

Divine Assurance

It is not easy getting old. We lose the work that provided a sense of identity. We lose the physical mobility that limits our freedom to do cherished activities or even to live at home. And we lose family members and friends, diminishing social networks at the time they are most needed.

• One is the loneliest number: Religious service attendance may protect against loneliness in later life by integrating older adults into larger and more supportive social networks. Researchers Sunshine Rote and Terrence Hill of Florida State University and Christopher Ellison of the University of Texas at San Antonio analyzed data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project. They found involvement in religious institutions can be an important social resource for older adults.
• Tell it, Mahalia: Listening to Gospel great Mahalia Jackson sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" or contemporary star Carrie Underwood perform "Jesus, Take the Wheel" may be a source of strength in later life. Data from two waves of the Religion, Aging and Health Survey indicated that listening to religious music is associated with increases in life satisfaction, a greater sense of control and a decrease in death anxiety, reported researchers Ellison, Matt Bradshaw and Collin Mueller of Duke University and Qijuan Fang of Bowling Green State University.
• Overcoming trauma: Older individuals with long-term religious experience tended to show higher resilience in the face of trauma, with beneficial effects in the areas of life satisfaction and depression in later life. Duke researchers Manning and Andrew Miles reported the results suggested in their study of data from the Health and Retirement Study.

David Briggs writes the Ahead of the Trend column for the Association of Religion Data Archives.